Communication Coach Blog
The importance of interpersonal skills in today’s tech-world cannot be underrated or undervalued, and that’s why I focused my recent TED Talk on them. Please take a moment to view and learn about “The Long Life of First Impressions”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuG-BHquAHU
If you like it, please ‘like’ it and share to your social networks, or directly on YouTube. Let’s spread the idea! Much appreciated!
Are you interested in becoming a Certified Communication Coach?
Coaching in general is an exploding industry, and the interest in communication coaching itself has tripled in the last few years. There are organizations that can certify you as a life coach, NLP coach, business coach etc. but currently there are not many, or no organizations that can certify you as a Communication Coach, except the one that started it – 3V Communications. If you think you have the background and interest in being certified as a Communication Coach by 3V Communications we do provide that service.
You will need to train under our system, learn our courses and philosophies etc. and be assessed. At the end of training you will be certified and have a ton of material and knowledge that you can use to either work with us or completely independent of us. The choice is yours.
What is a Communication Coach?
There are different definitions according to different coaching organizations, independent coaches and their backgrounds. Some coaches focus on writing, or public speaking, or corporate training, etc. Some attempt to do all. At the end of training you can decide how general or specific you want to be when advertising services. It is always best to specialize on the area or a few areas that you excel in.
Our Philosophy:
We believe in the “hybrid coaching”™ model. It combines current, effective coaching models, self-discovery and core competencies taken from Life and Business coaching, and we also incorporate more traditional coaching and training methodology to provide information and instruction as well. Our overall philosophy is to improve communications on a holistic, complete level, examining the verbal, the vocal and the visual aspects of communication, what we call “the 3 Vs of communication”™.
Currently there are two choices for obtaining certification:
A) 100% at-home self-study course, with some support coaching from a Mentor Coach (ideal for those already coaching or who have previous related certification/training)
B) Study for your certification with the constant support of a Mentor Coach (ideal for beginners who want more hands-on guidance in building their practice)
3V Communications Ltd. is an international training company recognized today as one of the leading authorities on Communication Coaching.
3V approved courses have met the strict guidelines for effective coach training, business development, ethics, and professional conduct as per the NCCA – the National Communication Coaching Association of Canada, and as such this 3V Communication Coach certification course is fully accredited by the NCCA.
If interested kindly contact 3V Communications for more information on curriculum cost, benefits of certification and benefits of NCCA designation, or leave a comment here, or email Ric directly. We will send you a detailed brochure. Please note this certification course is open to anyone residing and/or working anywhere in the world, and is not limited to Canada.
Here is the updated link to the course on the new 3V Communications website:
https://3vcommunications.ca/content/communication-coach-certification
Thank you!
Agreeing on a Coaching Plan
It can be difficult to find the perfect coach for you when you’ve never done it before. There are many types of coaches, with various backgrounds and different areas of specialization. Here are some quick tips to get you started on the right foot:
1 – self-assess your needs first. Be as specific as possible on current challenges, and goals you need to accomplish in order to feel improvement was made. Don’t just rely on a company’s assessment tools. They may not have them, or they may be general. Compare your assessment with theirs!
2 – Google search for a coach or training company using the specific area targeted for improvement, like ‘communication coach’, ‘presentation coach’, ‘executive management coach’, ‘confidence coach’ etc. See what comes up on the first page and then explore their sites/profiles/articles. Go deep, beyond the company/coach website. This is important.
3 – You can choose a company that has a good reputation for providing training but ultimately you will still need to choose an individual coach. When the company recommends a certain coach for your program, ask for a bio document or their LinkedIn profile so you can see what type of person they are recommending for you. Next arrange a free consultation with the coach (20 minute phone/Skype call or a longer in-person meeting) to see if there is a ‘fit’ in both comfort and strategy to solve your challenges.
4 – Ensure you and the coach/coaching company have agreed on the top priorities to focus the coaching on, and then get it in writing. Companies should have some kind of proposal or coaching agreement they can send to you that outlines the coaching focus, program/curriculum specifics, price, location and other policies to be aware of.
5 – Give it a go! A coach is a partner, not a teacher. They will help you achieve your goals if you put in equal effort. If for some reason the coaching is not working out, check your coaching agreement to see if you can modify the program or even switch coaches. After all, if you are not energized and happy, it will be very difficult to face your challenges and move beyond them.
Good luck!
Think before you type…
Do you ever notice how many people in positions of leadership in the business world can be friendly and casual in person, yet when they email or post a memo to staff they adopt a very formal, cold tone? Isn’t that a bit odd and counter-productive to all the rapport building previously done to win your confidence and loyalty?
For staff it can be akin to dealing with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. One minute you feel comfortable chatting with your boss or manager, and then next, you feel you are being scolded or talked down to through his/her writing. Here are the common traits of this problem:
1 – the manager adopts on reflex a “boss’s tone” without realizing it, often because it’s the way it’s been done at the workplace before (particular office culture)
2 – the manager feels a serious, formal tone sounds ‘professional’
3 – the manager hopes the formal, professional tone encourages staff to take him/her (more) seriously
4 – the memo has long business English words and phrases that sound ‘intelligent’
5 – the memo is filled with instructions, demands and orders, not inquiries, questions or polls
6 – using CAPS unnecessarily
It doesn’t have to be that way. I encourage members of management and team leaders to consider having a consistent message with their staff, customers, tenants, vendors etc. Of course writing still must avoid street slang, but it can certainly get its message across while being positive in tone and engaging, and still maintain professionalism. The key communication tip I’m suggesting is to use a consistent, conversational tone that still deals with the key issue or topic, but does not create distance.
Here are three quick examples of suggested changes:
To all Staff:
Please be advised that you will NO LONGER be able to use the common area for eating lunch. Please eat your food in the designated lunchrooms only.
Management
Change to…
Hi everyone,
Just a quick note to ask you to please eat your food in the lunchrooms only, and not in the common area. We want to keep that food-free as much as possible.
Thanks!
Mr. Smith / Team ABC Co.
Dear Valued Customer;
Our records indicate that you have not paid your last invoice. Please remit payment within the next 5 days to avoid late fees and potential legal action, as per the customer agreement.
Regards,
Mrs. Doe, ABC Bank Manager
Change to…
Dear Mrs. Smith,
We are reaching out to you as we have not received payment from the last issued invoice. If you have paid it already, please accept our thanks. If you have forgotten about it, please send us the payment as soon as you can. If there is a concern with your invoice please call us immediately so we can work with you to sort it out. We would like to help you avoid any late fees associated with this payment.
Best regards,
Mrs. Doe, ABC Bank Manager
NO food or drink beyond this point!
Change to…
Please do not bring food or drink beyond this point. Thank you!
It’s not the words that I/you choose as much as it’s the emotional vibe or feeling associated with the note. We can absolutely be a respected manager or boss and still use an approachable, casual and positive tone in our emails and memos. We want to be consistent in person and in writing, and we want to continue to build rapport with our staff and customers. Give it a try – you will be happy you did. In all honesty, wouldn’t you rather work with a Dr. Jekyll instead of a Mr. Hyde?
Source: MastersProgramsGuide.com
We are hard-wired to default to the negative, whenever not enough positive information is available about a person or situation. In other words, we do not automatically trust in the good of people or the world, unless we have sufficient reason, past experience or ‘proof’ to do so. We cautiously default to the negative to prepare for anything bad, just in case.
A few weeks ago I received an aggressive email from some lady far away, demanding that I remove a blog post that contained her original article. It was from at least two years ago, and it was for all intents and purposes, forgotten, and buried among my other posts. So why was she upset?
When I had copied the article to my blog, I also included the hyperlink to the original place where I had discovered the excellent article. I always cite the author and original website properly, because I know exactly what it feels like to see your articles posted on someone else’s blog or website, and not have proper credit given. I get it. To us authors, coaches and trainers, we spend a lot of time building ‘street cred’ on the internet to be recognized hopefully as a thought leader. It is our intention that our pieces of writing get shared and circulated, but we hope that sharing will lead people back to our site, and to our product and service line.
In this case the hyperlink now led to nowhere, as the hosting site where I originally found the article had shifted, been shut down or had been sold. The point is, the hyperlink I had placed in good faith years ago now did not lead to proper accreditation and this lady was upset that her work looked too much like it was ‘my’ work. I can understand her wanting to rectify this situation.
She came at me guns blazing, defending her work, threatening serious action if the article that I ‘stole’ was not taken down, or a new link to her new site was not put in place. I was a bad guy I guess in her eyes, and she had me in her cross-hairs.
She didn’t know me, had no proof of my innocence, and therefore defaulted to the negative. I must be a guy trying to pass off her hard work as my own, and leverage her article to gain my own new clients. I understand this from a psychological and evolutionary point of view. It’s a natural instinct to protect yourself and your stuff. What I want to preach today is to learn to recognize that evolutionary auto-warning system, shut it off, and think before you respond.
It would have been much better in my opinion if she would have approached me (or any other author in a similar situation) as a potential collaborator, not a competitor. After all we are obviously in the same market space. Here’s my suggested email:
Dear Ric,
I noticed you have published my article titled “ABC Great Article” in your blog post (dated month day year). First of all thank you for sharing my work. It is much appreciated. I noticed that you included a link to the site where you found the article but you probably had no way of knowing that the site has changed owners/function and so the link is unfortunately dead now. I was hoping you could simply exchange Link A with this new Link B in your blog post, so that readers of your blog may follow the article back to me with no problem. Alternatively you may choose to remove the post completely, but I hope you choose to keep it up on your blog.
Thank you so much for your time and once again thank you for sharing my article with your readers. Perhaps I could post one of your articles on my blog for our readers, since we share a common target market?
Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.
Sincerely,
Mrs. J. Smith
Had I received an email similar to the above, I would not only have changed the link immediately, but would have personally responded to the email and began to find out which of my articles would best suit her blog. It could have been the beginning of years of collaboration between colleagues.
Instead, what I did was delete the article immediately and not respond at all to the email. I won’t even cite it here in this blog post. It is dead to me. Which response do you think is better for her business?
I wish her the best and hold no grudge at all. I just thought it would make an interesting topic for a blog post. Please feel free to share this post, and I trust you will properly cite it. 😉
Are you one of the people concerned that if you say the traditional holiday greeting “Merry Christmas” that people might feel you are not being inclusive or being politically correct? But don’t you have the right to practice your own beliefs and follow your own traditions?
Stop fretting over this silly discussion. Ignore what your parents taught you and actually have your cake and eat it too. Say “Merry Christmas” if that ‘s your tradition or religion, and ALSO say “Happy Holidays” at the same time, to be inclusive with strangers and people you meet while out and about, especially in large, multicultural cities. It’s not too difficult to add that phrase. I personally grew up saying “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!” so I’m just replacing the last phrase ‘New Year’ with ‘Holidays’, and then next week I’ll just tell everyone “Happy New Year” or “Happy 2016!” I love simplicity. 🙂
Source: 3 Questions with Communication Expert Ric Phillips | The Jenn Report
Be clear, confident and successful! Don’t let a lack of high-level communication skills hold you back.
Advises Ric Phillips, a Communication Coach since 2006. His clients include professionals and politicians.
A few years ago, I met Ric Phillips at a local networking group and found him friendly and easy to talk to.
Recently, I asked him 3 Business Communication 101 questions. Here’s what he had to say:
Ric Phillips: There are several essential communication skills needed for a successful business relationship, but specifically considering the digital age, I would say:
1 – The ability to build rapport in person and over the internet and phone. Business requires not just human interaction, but humans to like each other. We are not motivated to work with someone or buy something from someone whom we dislike.
2 – Sense the tone. Especially considering texts, emails and VOIP calls, we need to be able to understand not only what is truly being said and meant, but how to ensure our communications going out have a minimal chance of being misinterpreted as snobby, sarcastic or demanding, to name a few potential threats.
3 – Public speaking and presenting… (Please continue reading by clicking the link above (Source link below photo) or https://thejennreport.wordpress.com/2015/10/19/3-questions-with-communication-expert-ric-phillips/ to get to Jenn’s full blog post and finish the article. Feel free to comment and share! 🙂